Professor Carlos Dews introduced the guests, then handed the stage to Paula Derrow. Derrow is an acquisitions editor at Shebooks, a digital publishing house that publishes only female writers. Derrow spoke about the history of Shebooks, which was founded by two women who worked in the magazine industry. They realized 89% of women claim to be readers in respect to just 69% of men. Shebooks was founded to promote female authors while catering to the high percentage of women readers.

Paula Derrow, who teaches writing at City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, then read her memoir “Getting In.” The memoir recounts her personal experience of the stressful process of applying for university in America.

Professor Elizabeth Geoghegan

Professor Geoghegan followed with a brief discussion of how many publishing opportunities writers have available to them in the digital age. While print publishing continues to fall, digital publishing has skyrocketed in the past ten years. Professor Geoghegan has published two digital novellas with Shebooks: Natural Disasters: Stories and the memoir The Marco Chronicles, to Rome without Love, a best-selling Kindle Short Read.

Progessor Geoghegan then read an excerpt from The Marco Chronicles. She then shared a short story, “Dog Boy,” from a work-in-progress collection of stories, all set in different cities around the world. Geoghegan’s pieces had the audience, a packed Aula Magna, laughing, gasping, and clapping.

The presentation was concluded with questions from the audience about women in publishing, creative inspirations, and developing a strong personal voice.